St. Paul daily globe., 1887-01-23
NOT FOR THE THEATER.
High Hats Stylish, But to Re Worn
Only on the Street.

kHiS IL kEdtS StyIlSns buE 10 be WORN
Only on the Street.
''There is an erroneous impression among
many women that it is in keeping wish the
fashion to wear high hats at the theater, -
said a leading man milliner to a reporter,
but cannot conceive where they got the
notion. The truth is, high hats were never
made for the theater, but for the street
alone. 1t is not only in bad taste, but de-
cidedly out of the mode to wear them at
public performances. Here is little
bonnet lately imported from Paris. 1t
is known as an evening bonnet. and
is designed expressly to be worn at
the opera and theater. 1t is
high, but very small and narrow at the top,
SO as not to obstruct the view. The trouble
seems to be that a large class of wouldbe
fashionable women who cannot afford two
or three expensive hats, purchase one that
is the range. and seem content to wear it at
all times and in all places. Such women
should wear hats that are not conspicuous.
On the contrary, however, it is just this
class that carry fashion to extremes. Many
of them can be seen upon Broadway every
afternoon, and l have noticed that the girl
who has but one hat wears the largest
bows, the biggest birds and the broadest
feathers upon it"
HAS the recent crusade against the
wearing of such hats at the theatre inter-
fered with the sale of them?"
No; we sell as many as ever 1t is the
fashionable street hat, and girls must be
stylishly dressed to be happy"
Where do the fashions originate?"
''There, you have asked a question that
leads up to an interesting subject. To be-
gin with, in the matters of dress men and
women alike are led by the nose. They ac-
cept whatever is imposed upon them. This
renders it simple matter for those who
have established a reputation for taste in
dresSmaking, tailoring or millinery, to gov
ern fashion. In the making of hats there
are certain milliners in London and Paris
who have it all their own way. They
originate designs, publish and distribute
plates of them among the leaders in the
trade, and the fashion becomes a fact
Americans, however, as a class, are not so
apt to accept blindly the more extreme
styles. These very high hats we are talk
ing about are worn much higher in London
and Paris than here. Over here we accept
but modify the fashions, and to so great ad-
vantage that it has become prOverbial that
Americans are the best dressed people in
the world"
''Are all the styles brought out by the
makers of fashion accepted?"
mo; natural process of selection takes
place, People use their own taste in
making these selections, and we can soon
tell by the preference shown for few
among the many designs which will be the
prevailing styles of the year"
"Will high hats be worn next spring."
SIN all probability. Perhaps not so high
as at present or perhaps even higher. Such
hats, as l have said before, are designed
only for street wear, and the crusade
against them cannot affect their sale by
those who purchase them merely with that
intention. | would like to have it known
that the spirit of fashion is in perfect ac-
cord with the movement. The woman pre-
tending to be we'll posted in matters of
dress would not think of wearing such a
hat at places of public amusement any
more than she would wear it at an after
noon tea or reception"